[Coral-List] Sargassum fluitans proliferation in the Lesser Antilles

[Kynoch Reale-Munroe]

I cannot say exactly when an influx of Sargassum started showing up here in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, however during our field work these past two days, we have definitely seen an abundance of it streaming in on the currents. It is not piling up on the beaches in any sort of an 'alarming' rate, but we definitely noticed numerous clumps of it in the water. I cannot quantify it, but we did randomly count 8 clumps passing by a stationary point in 5 seconds.

Ky  
 
Kynoch Reale-Munroe 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 


________________________________
From: OMMM Association <ommm at wanadoo.fr>
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Sargassum fluitans proliferation in the Lesser Antilles

Sargassum species here (Sargassum fluitans probably) are actually 
pelagic sargassum that develop at the surface of the water and are not 
attached to the substratum. Those algae can bloom in case of critical 
amount of nutrient inputs, that might be the cause of the amount of 
algae we ahve today. Another reason might be the global change in the 
current systems along the Eastern Caribbean that was not as usual as 
reported by fishermen in the area. But we would be interested in looking 
at the history of this phenomenon as I started to observe large plates 
of sargassum by mid May all across the Lesser Antilles. At this time the 
algae was not accumulating along the coast of the islands.

Jean-Philippe

****************************************************
Dr Jean-Philippe Maréchal, DSci
Director
Observatoire du Milieu Marin Martiniquais
3 avenue Condorcet
97200 Fort de France
Tel : +33 (5) 96 39 42 16
http://www.ommm.org
> Alan -
> the Orinoco or the rivers are not the source of Sargassum; Sargassum, 
> when attached to the benthos, gorws in large beds in generally quite 
> clear water. A lot of it grows in the Caribbean, along the FL keys, etc.
> Frank
>
>
> ______________ FMK ______________
> Frank Muller-Karger
> Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS)
> College of Marine Science
> University of South Florida
> 140 7th Ave. South
> St Petersburg, FL 33701
>
> Phones:
>   (727) 553-3335 Office
>   (727) 553-1186 Lab.
>   (727) 553-1103 FAX
> e-mail/www:
> << carib at marine.usf.edu >>
> << http://imars.marine.usf.edu>>
> _________________________________
>
> On Wed, 10 Aug 2011, Alan.e.strong wrote:
>
>> Isn't this likely to have its origin from the Orinoco River's outflow
>> into the area from Venezuela??
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Al
>>
>> On 8/9/2011 12:30 PM, OMMM Association wrote:
>>> Dear all
>>>
>>> Since May, 2011, a huge amount of pelagic sargassum piles up along the
>>> coast of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, and might
>>> affect probably all the islands in the area.
>>> Tons of algae enter the bays and cover the beaches. This 
>>> accumulation of
>>> floating sargassum can also extends at the surface of the water for 
>>> tens
>>> of meters in semi closed area, causing environmental problems to very
>>> coastal communities.
>>>
>>> We have not seen any comments since this began in May. The algae still
>>> accumulates and cause management problems for local authorities. 
>>> This is
>>> also the marine turtles' nesting period, what has an incidence on local
>>> decision to remove the algae accumulated on the beaches. Those algae
>>> decomposed and toxic gaz might be produced, as H2S, which is quite low
>>> from the measures that have been done at the moment (0-3 ppm).
>>>
>>> Is there any information we could share on the origin of this
>>> proliferation of pelagic sargassum in the area?
>>> Who else in the Lesser Antilles or elsewhere face the same problem?
>>>
>>> We do airplane survey and fly over the coastal area to detect piles of
>>> sargassum away offshore looking at possible trajectories.
>>>
>>> We are interested in any satellite images that could detect those 
>>> saragssum.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Jean-Philippe Maréchal
>>>
>>> ****************************************************
>>> Dr Jean-Philippe Maréchal, DSci
>>> Director
>>> Observatoire du Milieu Marin Martiniquais
>>> 3 avenue Condorcet
>>> 97200 Fort de France
>>> Tel : +33 (5) 96 39 42 16
>>> http://www.ommm.org
>>>
>>> GDRI "Coral Reef Biodiversity" - CNRS
>>> Associate Director
>>> http://www.gdri-corail.org
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Coral-List mailing list
>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>> -- 
>> ****<><  *******<><  *******<><  *******<><  *******
>> Alan E. Strong, Ph.D.
>> NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Consultant
>> Strong Research, Inc.&  IMSG
>> National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
>> NOAA Coral Reef Watch Program
>>  e-mail: Alan.E.Strong at noaa.gov
>> url: coralreefwatch.noaa.gov
>>
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>>
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>
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